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<title>Oct. 26th, “You Keep Me Warm.” by Morpheus626</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25063939">Oct. 26th, “You Keep Me Warm.”</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morpheus626/pseuds/Morpheus626'>Morpheus626</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Pacific (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:40:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>944</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25063939</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morpheus626/pseuds/Morpheus626</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Fictober 2019. <br/>I would put a proper synopsis here, but I feel like I’d end up spoiling the fic if I did. So, just know that this one is a bittersweet fic.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Merriell "Snafu" Shelton/Eugene Sledge</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Oct. 26th, “You Keep Me Warm.”</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Warnings: Mentions of violent death, including descriptions of the state of some corpses. Not like, grossly explicit, but if none of that is your bag, then no harm in skipping this one.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The last thing he could remember was Ack Ack screaming for them to move.</p>
<p>Then, nothing.</p>
<p>But Eugene was beside him still, so things had to be okay. </p>
<p>He peeked out of the foxhole, but the rest of K/3/5 were gone. It was quiet. Too quiet. And cold…</p>
<p>“The hell? Did they leave us?” Eugene asked, crawling out of the foxhole to stand and look about the deserted battlefield. “Took our gear too…what’s that about?” </p>
<p>A creeping, horrifying realization came over him, and he reached up to try and pull Eugene back into the foxhole.</p>
<p>“What, Snaf?” Eugene fussed. “No one’s shootin’ at us, and I can’t hear anyone, and-” </p>
<p>He watched Eugene’s face crumple as the same terrible realization hit him. </p>
<p>“We gotta find the guys. They must have…I don’t know, but we aren’t…” Eugene stuttered.</p>
<p>“Let’s go find ‘em. Think we’ll know for sure then,” Snafu willed himself up and out, and reached for Eugene’s hand. “C’mon.” </p>
<p>If they’d been anywhere else, cleaned up, it would have seemed they were on a nice walk together. Hand-in-hand down the few wandering and meandering paths that had been established by the soldiers who’d walked the area before them.</p>
<p>“Too damn cold,” Eugene whimpered. “We were sweatin’, how the hell is it so cold now?” </p>
<p>“C’mere,” Snafu replied, and let go of Eugene’s hand so he could wrap an arm around his waist as they walked. “You keep me warm, and I’ll keep you warm.” </p>
<p>“Snaf-”</p>
<p>“We don’t know nothin’ for sure until we see it,” Snafu interrupted, willing away an image of the worst in his head. “Bet everyone is still close. We just gotta keep moving.” </p>
<p>Not a half mile later they found K/3/5 at rest, most of the men in quickly dug foxholes. Ack Ack, Burgin, and Gunney Haney were the only three apart, sitting on the ground near the foxholes.</p>
<p>“I should have said something sooner,” Ack Ack had tears streaming streaks through the dirt covering his face. “I had a bad feeling, and I-” </p>
<p>“You can’t blame yourself,” Gunney Haney interrupted, his sharp, bright eyes red-rimmed from crying. “Got to keep steady for the rest of the men.” </p>
<p>“They’re all cryin’ too anyway,” Burgin spat. “I know we’re gonna lose men. But not them. It was never gonna be them. They were supposed to go home tog….to go home.” </p>
<p>“I knew Burgie had us figured out,” Snafu sighed. “Good catch there on his part, huh? Almost said it out loud.” </p>
<p>“Ack Ack and Haney knew too, I think,” Eugene said. “Respected us for who we were, and didn’t care about anything else.” </p>
<p>Snafu nodded, and gestured towards a few stretchers bearing bodies, set aside from the other men. “Shall we?” </p>
<p>The bodies were only partially covered by their ponchos, a likely result of having been jostled as they’d been transported. </p>
<p>He felt the tears run down his face, heard Eugene’s strangled and pained shout, despite the sight in front of him confirming that none of that should really be possible anymore.</p>
<p>Him, or his body, lay on one stretcher, a huge bloody wound in his neck. Eugene’s body was on another beside him, a bullet wound in his forehead.</p>
<p>Eugene’s whimpering no longer consisted of words, just sobs as they walked back towards the rest of the men. </p>
<p>He held Eugene tight as they sat near the foxholes, even as K/3/5 got up an hour later and left again. The sky darkened, but he ignored it. Nothing in the trees or that came along the trail could hurt them now.</p>
<p>In the dark he half-led, half-carried Eugene back to the beach. The walking didn’t ache his legs or the open sores on his feet now. </p>
<p>There, they waited for the sunrise. Then for something, any sign of what was supposed to come…after.</p>
<p>But the sun rose, and nothing came.</p>
<p>“Think we could somehow leave, and go visit our families?” Eugene asked, his voice ragged from his weeping.</p>
<p>He shrugged as he reached forward and tried to touch a crab passing them by, but his hand went right through it. “Don’t see why we couldn’t. You can show me Mobile; I can show you New Orleans. Like taking vacations together.” </p>
<p>Eugene laughed, but it was tinged with bitterness. “Sorta.” </p>
<p>He smiled. “I know. But it’s somethin’, at least. Long as you don’t mind me stickin’ with ya. Don’t really know where else I’d go…don’t really wanna be alone…” </p>
<p>It was wild, stumbling over his words and emotions, even in death.</p>
<p>“I want you with me,” Eugene replied. “I mean, if you wanna be with me too, and-” </p>
<p>Snafu cut him off with a kiss, forceful and warm, the warmest he’d felt since…it had happened. A blessing he could feel that, at least. </p>
<p>Eugene could clearly feel it too, pulling him down with him onto the sand, one hand behind his neck, the other at his hip. </p>
<p>After a few moments of kissing that would have left him breathless if he’d had any, they paused. </p>
<p>“Been waitin’ to do that and more for a long while,” he said softly as he pressed gentle kisses to Eugene’s face. </p>
<p>“Same. Wish I could have done it before this though,” Eugene sighed. He was finally smiling, and it was wonderful to Snafu. It didn’t matter if any other heaven existed, he’d already found his in Eugene’s smile. </p>
<p>“We’ve got eternity to make up for it,” Snafu replied. And he wasn’t planning on rushing a thing. If they couldn’t have their best life together alive, then they’d at least have their best afterlife together. </p>
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